The Academic God Becomes an Internet Sensation After Joining a Dating Show - Chapter 77 - The Bride

No lights illuminated the hall except for the candle in Qing Lin’s hand. A small circle of coolness surrounded the flame. He raised it, leaning closer to examine the portrait.

He was a young man. On closer inspection, the photo showed him dressed in his groom’s outfit. A memorial tablet sat on the table; Qing Lin leaned into the light to make out the name inscribed on it.

Dust settled on the tablet. Qing Lin reached out, took it in hand, and examined it by candlelight, slowly reading the words. “The Tomb of My Son, Qilang…”

“Qing Lin?”

Startled by the mention of his name, Qing Lin flinched, his foot kicking the wooden table with a clatter.

He steadied the candle and turned toward the sound, only to find someone bound to the back wall.

He recognized the voice instantly. Slowly approaching the figure, he raised the flame upward and saw Shen Xuzhi’s face.

“Could you help me remove the blindfold?”

Qing Lin didn’t hear the words, too preoccupied with observing Shen Xuzhi’s suspended posture.

The man’s arms were raised above his head, suspended against the wall in a hanging position.

Tall and slender with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, the front of his shirt felt slightly tight. The buttons were fastened just above his Adam’s apple, yet his entire posture remained relaxed. The black blindfold obscured half his face, making his restraint all the more alluring.

Wow, just wow.

This bondage…

So hot.

Qing Lin stared intently at Shen Xuzhi’s protruding pectorals for a full thirty seconds.

Only after Shen Xuzhi called his name again did he clear his throat, feigning composure. “Uh, okay.”

Qing Lin removed Shen Xuzhi’s blindfold.

Taking off the blindfold didn’t bring back the light—the surroundings were still pitch black. In that darkness, Qing Lin stood out, faintly glowing like something bright and crystalline.

Shen Xuzhi’s gaze softened at the sight of Qing Lin, who instead examined his bound hands, realizing they required a key to unlock.

Unable to see anything ahead in the darkness, Shen Xuzhi asked, “What’s up ahead?”

Qing Lin lowered his hands, glanced back at the candle, and replied flatly, “Oh, that’s the groom’s memorial altar. There’s a doll dressed in wedding attire on the wooden table—just its head is severed.”

Shen Xuzhi: “…”

He couldn’t possibly be unafraid.

“I’ll look for the key.” Qing Lin walked back to help Shen Xuzhi find the key to unlock the handcuffs. After rummaging around, he picked up the terrifying doll from the table, pinched its head, and felt a hard object inside.

Qing Lin fiddled with it for a moment, then yanked the doll’s head off. He pulled the key out from the pile of stuffing inside the head: “Found it.”

Shen Xuzhi: “…………”

He found Su Mingxuan’s screams next door annoying, yet here Qing Lin was, expressionless as he pulled off a head.

Looks like he’s got nerves of steel.

After finding the key, Qing Lin walked over to unlock Shen Xuzhi’s door.

His hand hung high, so Qing Lin stood on tiptoe to reach it. But the keyhole was a bit small, making unlocking difficult.

“Qing Lin…” Shen Xuzhi felt Qing Lin brushing against him, tickling his skin. He lowered his voice, “Something seems to have gotten into my eye.”

Qing Lin was still working on the lock. Hearing this, he paused his movements slightly.

“How did that happen?” Qing Lin frowned, but his hand still reached up to touch Shen Xuzhi’s eye, wanting to help him check.

“Probably when you took off the blindfold.” Shen Xuzhi felt a little reassured seeing him like this. “Blow on it.”

Qing Lin wondered if he was being coy, quickly unlocking the handcuffs before looking at Shen Xuzhi’s eye.

At that moment, Shen Xuzhi had his eyes closed, his long lashes casting soft shadows under the warm glow of the candlelight. In that gentle light, his features looked exceptionally handsome.

Qing Lin bit his lip, then gently blew on Shen Xuzhi’s eyes. “Does it still hurt?”

“A little.” Shen Xuzhi lied without hesitation—he felt perfectly fine.

Their tender moment was cut short when Su Mingxuan called out from the next room: “Top student! Ah Zhi! Are you guys over there?”

Hearing Su Mingxuan’s voice, Qing Lin knew it was time to focus on the game. He pulled away from Shen Xuzhi without a second thought and walked to the wall to respond. “Yes, we’re over here!”

“What’s over there?” Su Mingxuan asked. “This side is a memorial hall!”

“Ours is too,” Qing Lin replied. “It must be the groom’s memorial hall. His name was Qilang.”

Chen Xiangchao chimed in. “Over here, it’s a girl dressed in wedding attire. She must be the bride.”

“The bride and groom’s memorial halls are separate…” Qing Lin pondered, then asked, “Do you have a memorial tablet over there with the bride’s name on it?”

“Hmm… We looked, but there’s no memorial tablet for the bride here. Just a portrait.”

Su Mingxuan’s voice chimed in from the other side. “Hey, can we find the code to get out first? This place is way too creepy.”

Qing Lin also felt a chill. The air conditioning here was set absurdly low. Then he sensed something press against him from the side.

He turned his head to see Shen Xuzhi pressed tightly against him, looking down at him.

Qing Lin: “What’s wrong?”

Shen Xuzhi paused before saying, “I’m afraid of the dark.”

“Afraid of the dark?” Qing Lin asked, puzzled.

Shen Xuzhi nodded, showing no embarrassment. “Can I get closer to you?”

Qing Lin didn’t think much of it—people had fears—and nodded in agreement.

Shen Xuzhi happily leaned closer, hooking his little finger with a gentle tug. “Can we hold hands?” he asked softly.

Before Qing Lin could reply, Shen Xuzhi took his hand without waiting.

His voice carried a slight hoarseness as he rubbed against Qing Lin’s knuckles. “Your hands are so cold.”

His fingers traced a circle in the palm, warmth seeping through the gaps between their fingers. Shen Xuzhi murmured quietly, “I’ll keep you warm. You protect me. How about that?”

Su Mingxuan, listening in next door, heard it all perfectly: “…”

If it weren’t for the time they’d filmed a segment together, where this guy who was terrified of the dark had walked through a haunted house with a stone-cold expression, he might have believed it.

“Ahem.” Chen Xiangchao cleared his throat from the next room. “You two are undoubtedly the only couple in the world flirting in a mourning hall.”

Qing Lin finally snapped out of Shen Xuzhi’s spell upon hearing this.

Flushed with embarrassment and indignation, he released Shen Xuzhi’s hand and turned to search for clues, his voice flat as he ordered, “Find the password, quick.”

Shen Xuzhi sighed inwardly.

How could he possibly coax him?

Qing Lin was truly brave and focused as he searched for clues. He found a candle and lit it for Shen Xuzhi, and the two began groping around the memorial hall separately.

“Qing Lin, there’s a plaque here,” Shen Xuzhi motioned for Qing Lin to come over.

Qing Lin walked over and saw a wooden plaque embedded in the uneven wall surface, with several holes chiseled into it.

“Looks like a math problem,” Shen Xuzhi said. “Look here, these are traditional characters for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in the middle. And there are numbers behind them.”

Shen Xuzhi wiped away the dust with his sleeve, revealing the characters clearly: “The first is a multiplication sign, the second an addition sign. The numbers that follow are one hundred eighty-nine and twenty-four.”

“Do we fill in the numbers? Then that number becomes the password?” Qing Lin asked, suddenly remembering something. He walked over to the coffin, pulled open a drawer, and found four round discs inside.

He walked over to compare them. All these small wooden discs could fit perfectly into place.

“We should probably insert them according to the equation,” Qing Lin said.

He examined the discs closely. By candlelight, he could see patterns on them—right angles whose origins lay at the center of each circle.

Yet all four discs were identical.

Qing Lin turned them over and over but found no specific numbers engraved on them.

“This shape… doesn’t it resemble a clock?” Shen Xuzhi suggested. “For instance, when the right-angle points northeast, it indicates 3 o’clock; northwest would be 9 o’clock.”

“Hmm. But if we interpret it that way, when flipped upside down, we can’t distinguish the hour hand from the minute hand.” Qing Lin examined them again, pointing to the two hands. “Plus, the numbers aren’t large enough. If that’s the case, the maximum possible product would only be 81.”

Shen Xuzhi studied the clock face, pondering for a moment before suggesting, “What if they’re all hour hands?”

He demonstrated several configurations. “This could be seen as 9 and 12, totaling 21. That would provide a sufficiently large multiplier.”

“You’re right, Shen Laoshi.” Qing Lin swiftly calculated the combined sizes of several dials, filling the gaps on the wall. “The first should be southeast × northwest, and the second is southeast × northeast.”

He listed the numbers: “3691236312.”

Shen Xuzhi stepped forward and entered the sequence.

“Beep————”

The sound grew urgent. Suddenly, the altar shook violently, and the wails of a child echoed from nearby.

Qing Lin was genuinely startled, stumbling backward into Shen Xuzhi’s arms.

Shen Xuzhi’s hand was still clasped on Qing Lin’s shoulder as the portrait shook violently, and the room began to flicker with red light.

The child’s cries and screams persisted. After a long moment, Qing Lin finally turned to Shen Xuzhi and asked, “Did I get it wrong?”

Shen Xuzhi tugged at the door. “Seems like it.”

Qing Lin returned to the door and carefully recalculated. There should have been no problem.

Suddenly, he realized. “I know! The number 15 works for both northeast and southwest directions!”

Shen Xuzhi stepped forward and swiftly pressed, “369123669”.

“Clang!” The door swung open!

The room stopped shaking, and the child’s cries ceased. The two hurried out.

Outside lay a long, pitch-black corridor. Utter darkness—no corridor lights. Shen Xuzhi and Qing Lin plunged directly into the void.

“Xuzhi! Top student! Did you get out?” Su Mingxuan’s voice echoed from inside.

Qing Lin gave a brief “Mm.”

Chen Xiangchao called, “Hold on, I’m almost done.”

“Beep—click.”

The group next door emerged too.

As they gathered, a light at the corridor’s end suddenly flickered on, blinking erratically.

“Where should we go now?” Zheng Qin asked.

“Uh… uh…” Su Mingxuan pointed toward the light at the end of the tunnel, his voice faltering. “Is there someone over there…”

Everyone turned to look and saw a dark, shadowy figure floating in the darkness. It resembled a skeleton clad in a black robe, tattered rags trailing behind it amidst thick smoke, revealing eerie white bones.

In the next second, the skeleton charged toward them.

“Oh, how joyful, oh, how joyful

Parents reunited,

Never to part again.”

The childish nursery rhyme echoed as the skeleton’s charge seemed to wield a scythe, swinging toward those standing nearby.

“Aaaah!”

“What are you standing there for? Run!”

Chen Xiangchao shoved Su Mingxuan, whose legs had gone weak, forward. The five of them screamed as they ran toward the other end.

“There’s a door! Quick, get inside!”

“Bang!”

As the door slammed shut, the room’s lights flickered on.

The five leaned against the door, gasping for breath.

Zheng Qin recovered first, pacing around the room. A dressing table, a bed—this must be the bride’s chamber.

As a veteran resident, Zheng Qin swiftly felt along the dresser and began rummaging through a drawer for clues.

“I found the bride’s diary here,” Zheng Qin announced.

The others had mostly regained their composure and gathered around to look.

[May 2, 1930

My wedding to Qilang is coming soon. Today we went together to choose my bridal gown. He said red suits me perfectly.]

____________________________________________________________________________________

[May 3, 1930

Qilang had to travel for work and said he would return in a few days. Before leaving, we embraced, and he promised he would always miss me.]

_____________________________________________________________________________________

[May 20, 1930

Qilang still hasn’t returned. Everyone at home misses him terribly. I often see my mother-in-law secretly crying—she must miss him deeply as well.]

_____________________________________________________________________________________

[May 28, 1930

Qilang finally came back. I missed him so much.

He was so thoughtful, even bringing my favorite osmanthus cakes. Unfortunately, he seemed unwell and wouldn’t let me help him. I could only let him rest. I hope he recovers soon so we can marry.]

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Looks like a loving couple,” Chen Xiangchao remarked after reading the diary.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

But then, Shen Xuzhi, standing at the back, suddenly remarked, “Something about this doesn’t add up.”

He pointed to the date on the diary and said, “Look at the date in the diary.”

“May 28th,” Su Mingxuan replied. “What’s wrong with that?”

“The memorial tablet for Qilang states his passing date as May 17, 1930. Yet on May 28th, the bride claims to have seen her groom in her diary,” Qing Lin added. “Either the bride was driven completely mad by grief, or—”

He paused, then continued under the group’s horrified stares.

“…this bride can see ghosts.”